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And Lingard has warned rivals that he is only going to get better as he matures mentally and physically.

“He can handle the pressure,” said the 24-year-old forward. “He’s been about long enough now to handle the pressure. He’s scored major goals for United and again he’s got the important goal.

"He’s still growing. He’s going to fill out even more. His knowledge of the game and his game intelligence will continue to grow and he’ll keep learning and go from there.

“Of late he’s been put on set-pieces, and his corner delivery and free-kicks have been excellent.

"Close to goal he’s got a real chance of scoring. He practices them. Practice makes perfect and he’s worked on that. Obviously he saw the keeper move to the left and created that space for himself to find the corner.”

Ibrahimovic scored 28 goals in his debut United season before last month's injury (Image: AFP/Getty)

He is captain and United's record goal-scorer, but Rooney spent the Vigo game on the bench (Image: PA)

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“The Champions League is massive and United should be there. It’s unfortunate we’re in this competition but we’ve given 100 per cent in the Europa League.

“It obviously means more games and players will be more fatigued come the end of the season.You can also see the injuries we’ve had towards the end of this season, but it’s about recovery.”

Although boss Mourinho has admitted a top-four finish is almost certainly now beyond United, Lingard said the players still believe they can make it.

“We have got to keep the pressure on the top four,” he added. “We’re not out of it yet. We’ve got the belief. From now until the end of the season every game is big. We’ve got to treat them like finals.

“We’ve got to win the games and hopefully we beat Arsenal and can then concentrate on the next game.”